Balancing the Books
by C. R. Scott
Summary: Bruce Wayne should have died during the final crisis battle against Darkseid. However, he's alive and Destiny's book needs to be balanced. Someone needs to die in his place. warnings: major character death


"He's back, and all's right with the world."

The white skinned, black haired woman next to Tim gave him a reproachful look. "You know that's not true." She sighed and frowned. "By all rights, he should be dead. He should have never come back. My brother is extremely upset because his very existence disrupts the balance of his book."

Tim gazed at the distant skyline, at the setting sun disappearing slowly below the outline of Gotham's skyscrapers. "What about Jason? What about Superman? What about everyone else who died and came back?"

The woman leaned back on the rooftop ledge, swinging her legs idly. "If you think about it, even back then, when those people came back, other sacrifices had to be made to balance the books. Maybe you knew those people who died, maybe not, but there is one constant." She gave him a serious look. "Those individuals can never come back to mortal via unnatural means. I watch over those souls personally." Then she smiled. "When it comes time for them to be reborn, I make sure they get a good restart at their next life."

"Is it… my fault?" Tim asked in a small voice. "Because I searched for—"

"Oh sweety, no!" She reached over and patted his knee. "It's not your fault. It was all the fault of that idiot Darkseid." She scowled. "If he'd just killed Batman cleanly, like he was fated to do, then all would've been well. However, he decided to get cute and try to screw with the fabric of time and space at the same time." She gave Tim a compassionate squeeze. "We actually owe you a great deal because you did find him, and in the process prevented the total end of everything."

"So why are we here now?" Finally, for the first time since she appeared to him, Tim met and held her gaze. His blue eyes were full of fear and uncertainty. "If you and your family owes me so much, why is Death visiting me, telling me that I have to sacrifice my life for my father?"

"To give you a choice."

"Choice?"

"You are the one Destiny has slated to die, because the ripples caused by your death will be significant, equivalent in strength to the ripples caused by the death of your father. However, once your life in this plane has ended, because of what we owe you, we are giving you a choice." She held up one hand. "You can choose the normal path a soul takes… Spend time with dead loved ones… Rest in whatever choice of afterlife you want… And when you get bored with that, you can reincarnate and re-enter the mortal coil in a new life… A charmed life, so to speak."

"And what's in the other hand?"

Death opened her other hand. "A chance to become more than a normal soul. A chance to become an agent for us." At his surprised look, she smiled. "A chance to explore other realms barred to mortals. You'd have to do the occasional odd jobs for myself or my siblings, so you'd have the ability to influence the both the mortal and spiritual worlds." She winked at him. "But you'll have to figure out those tricks for yourself."

Tim pondered this. "So I'd be like a ghost?"

"Hmmm… not quite." Death glanced skyward. "Do you know those myths and legends, where mortals who did stuff that impressed the gods got the chance to be placed among them? Y'know, like Olympus and stuff?"

"Yeah."

"Kinda like that."

Tim sat there, watching the last of the daylight fade into darkness. Then he sighed. "There's no way to avoid this?"

"It's as they say… That whole line about death and taxes."

"When?"

"Sunrise."

"Do I have to make a decision now?"

"No… You have all night."

Tim turned to look at Death, but she was gone. Only the shadow of her voice remained.

—-

He could've called called someone… But in the end, Tim told no one of the visitor he had earlier. He didn't try to change his fate. He didn't tell anyone about the choice he had been given.

Instead, he went about his business as if it had been just a normal night.

As fates would have it, maybe through some string pulling by Death or Destiny, Red Robin spent the night patrolling with Batman, Nightwing, and Robin.

Bruce didn't know why, but the night just felt different. The starry sky seemed brighter and the air a little less smoggy as he shared the evening with his sons. All three boys seemed to get along better than they had in months. Even Damian and Tim kept their usual arguing to a minimum.

Truth be told, Tim was very quiet that night. Between the usual activities of breaking up crime in the city, Bruce caught him studying either him or his brothers with a strange intensity.

He also kept checking the horizon to the east.

"Is everything alright?" Batman asked after sending Nightwing and Robin ahead of them when he noticed that his other son had stopped moving forward across the rooftops.

Red Robin's gaze was firmly on the horizon and the lightening sky. "It's almost sunrise," he said quietly. Then he slowly pushed his cowl from his head.

"Tim? What are you doing?" Bruce moved quickly to close the distance between himself and his son. "Put your mask back on."

Tim did nothing of the sort. Instead, he turned to look at his father. "It's not your fault." Then he smiled. "I promise… I'll watch over everyone…"

An inkling of fear insinuated itself into Bruce's heart. He pulled away his own cowl so he could see his son more clearly. "Tim! What are you talking about?" Something was wrong. Something was seriously wrong, and he couldn't seem to move his legs fast enough. There was an entire rooftop separating him and his son, and the distance just didn't seem to grow any shorter.

Then he saw her.

A pale woman with black hair, with an ankh necklace and a black symbol tattooed beneath her eye to resemble the eye of Horus. She stood right behind Tim and stared at Bruce.

He'd heard of this woman.

Bruce's heart went cold.

"No…" he murmured as he ran as fast as he could. "No! You can't take him! Not my son!"

Tim felt tears course down his face. To hear those words from Bruce made his heart feel warm, and he for the first time in a very long time, he felt completely at peace. "I love you, Dad."

Then the sun crested over the horizon.

* * *

**Author's Notes:** _I wrote this story earlier today when I got into a mood both for a tragic deathfic as well as interaction between fatherly!Bruce and Tim. This has spawned a couple of sequels on Tumblr, where it was originally posted, but since those were written by other authors, I can't post them myself. Instead, look up "Heartslogos" and "Avanalae" at ._


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